Luckily, six years ago, while at a crossroads in my writing path, I took a chance and reached out to some potential friends. I’m not Dorothy, but my path to publication has been as circuitous as those yellow bricks. This meant they could all move forward down the Yellow Brick Road together. Where Dorothy went really right is she made friends with others who had similar goals and direction. The kind of thing most of us would do in a new or foreign situation: Dorothy made friends. So I’ll pose this question: would you say Dorothy was building her network when she invited Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion to follow her to Oz? And if they’d been her “followers,” is it likely they would have continued to support her in her quest once they were confronted by the Wicked Witch? Dorothy did the smart thing. Often, in the midst of all the tweets, RSS feeds, YouTube videos and other noise from the internet, what we really need is a safety net. We expand our communities across Facebook, Twitter and MySpace much the way Britain’s Empire spanned the globe.īut writing is also a personal endeavor and can be an intensely private journey where we need to overcome fears to achieve our dreams. We build our networks and bond with potential audiences. I think most writers recognize the power of social media nowadays. This blog is such an inspiration to me, and I hope to offer something back. Or how I accidentally built an online writing neighborhood that’s defined my careerĪ huge thank you to the team here at Writer Unboxed for inviting me today. I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends How much can an online community rally around a person? What, really, can a virtual community do for you? Amy’s here today to tell us a little about that. When her debut, Lying Eyes, sold recently, the GIAM community rallied around her to help celebrate.

She’s generous with her time, positive, supportive, and one of the most ambitious people I’ve ever known–often juggling several ginormous projects at once. Amy has long been mama to a thriving Yahoo community called GIAM or Goal In A Month.

I’m thrilled to have guest, debut author and personal friend Amy Atwell with us today.

Lying Eyes by Amy Atwell